Apparatus for refining lead by electrolysis.



PATENTBD NOV. 7, 1905.

A. G. BBTTS. APPARATUS FOR REFINING LEAD BY ELEGTROLYSIS.

APPLIOATION FILED HARJB, 1904.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

Win- 155555 WWNEEEEE ANSON G. BETTS, OF TROY, NEW YORK.

APPARATUS FOR REFINING LEAD BY ELECTROLYSlS- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. '7, 1905.

Application filed March 18, 1904:. Serial No. 198,770.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANsoN Gr. Burrs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Troy, county of Rensselaer, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful 1mprovements in Apparatus for Refining Lead by Electrolysis, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to such improvements; and it consists of the novel construction and combination of parts hereinafter described and subsequently claimed.

Reference may be had to the accompanying drawings, and the reference characters marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

Similar characters refer to similar parts in the several figures.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a view in isometrical perspective of an electrolytic tank made in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is ahorizontal cross-section of a corner portion of the same in a preliminary stage of the manufacture of the tank. Fig. 3 is a similar View after the manufacture of the tank has been completed. Fig. 4 is a vertical crosssection of the apparatus for refining lead by electrolysis, comprising in part a tank con-.

structed in accordance with said invention.

The principal object of the invention is to secure greater economy, uniformity, and purity of product in refining lead by electrolysis.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2, and 3 of the drawings, wherein is shown a preferred construction of tank, 1 represents the wooden body of the tank, which may be of any desired form and dimensions. The wooden body of the tank is lined with copper plates 2 upon its bottom and sides, which plates are joined together along their contiguous edges by solder 3. To the central portions of the copper plates thus soldered together is applied a coating of insulating-paint 4, which extends to within a short distance of the line of solder which lies along the joint of the lining, leaving a narrow strip of bare copper exposed along the opposite sides of the lines of solder, as shown at 5. The tank is then filled with a clear acid copper-sulfate solution and is connected in an electric circuit as a cathode, while anodes of pure copper or impure copper covered with cloth or other similar material to keep the solution clear are immersed in said solution, causing the electrodeposition of copper ppon all portions of the surface of the lining of the tank which are not covered and protected by the insulating-paint. By

omitting said coating of insulating-paint the,

whole interior of the tank can be thus electroplated with copper. By this process the soldered surfaces become covered by a plating 6 of pure copper deposited thereupon and also upon the exposed copper surface intervening between the solder and insulatingpaint, said electroplated copper forming a substantially integral continuation of the co pper-lining plates over the soldered surface.

The tank is thus given an unbroken copper lining well adapted for the purpose intended. After the copper has been thus electrodeposited in sufiicient thickness the tank is emptied, washed, and dried, and as a preferred final step substantially the whole interior of the tank is covered with insulating-paint. Insulating-paints adapted for this purpose are well known and are on the market under various names, such as rubber-paint.

The tank above described is proof against leakage or absorption, having a continuous copper inner surface without joint or seam.

Any other means may be employed for providing the tank with a copper interior surface.

Within the copper-lined tank prepared as above described is placed the electrolyte 8 and electrodes 9 and 10, any desirednumber of which may be employed. The electrolyte and electrodes may be any such as are known to be adapted for refining lead by electrolysis by dissolving lead from the anode and electrodepositing the same upon the cathode. An electrolyte and electrodes suitable for such purpose are fully shown and described in Letters Patent of the United States No. 7 13,27 7, dated November 11, 1902, granted to me for refining lead by electrolysis.

In the operation of the apparatus with the electrodes suitably connected in an electric circuit refined lead is electrodeposited upon the cathode 9; but the copper lining of the tank, although capable of being dissolved by the electrolyte, is protected from attack by the same by reason of its potential relatively to that of the anode.

It is advisable that neither the cathode 9 nor the anode 10 be allowed to make electrical connection with the copper lining by contact therewith.

I have demonstrated by experiment with an apparatus like that above described, using an anode from which lead was dissolved by the electrolyte, that the-copper lining of the tank assumes a potential intermediate between the anodes and cathodes and is not in the slightest degree attacked or dissolved by the electrolyte, and by the use of which apparatus I have electrodeposited lead which contains less than one part of copper to one million parts of lead. If any copper Were dissolved, some would be sure to find its Way into the electrodeposit on the cathodes.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In an apparatus for refining metal by electrolysis the combination With a cathode. an anode and an electrolyte adapted to dissolve metal from the anode and electrodeposit the same; of a containing-vat having its inner surface formed of a metal capable of being dissolved in said electrolyte and of a potential intermediate between that of the cathode and that of the anode.

2. In an apparatus for refining lead by electrolysis, the combination With a copper-lined tank; of an anode of lead to be refined, a cathode, and an electrolyte adapted to dissolve lead from said anode and to electrodeposit the same upon the cathode.

3. In an apparatus for refining lead by electrolysis, the combination with an electrolytic tank having an interior continuous copper surface formed in Whole or in part of electrodeposited copper; of an anode of lead to be refined, a cathode, and an electrolyte adapted to dissolve lead from said anode and to electrodeposit the same upon the cathode.

4:. In an apparatus for refining lead by electrolysis, the combination with an electrolytic tank having a lining of copper plates soldered together along their contiguous edges with their soldered connections electroplated With copper; of an anode of lead to be refined, a cathode, and an electrolyte adapted to dissolve lead from said anode and to electrodeposit the same upon the cathode.

5. In an apparatus for refining lead by electrolysis, the combination With an electrolytic tank having a copper lining painted With insulating material; of an anode of lead to be refined, a cathode, and an electrolyte adapted to dissolve lead from said anode and to electrodeposit the same upon the cathode.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 16th day of March, 1904.

ANSON Gr. BET-TS.

Witnesses:

FRANK C. (JURTIs. E. M. OREILLY. 

